Manchester based creative agency Raw are not scared of self-initiated promo briefs with successes like their Pantone Christmas Cards under their belts. Their latest project Raw Type was created to promote both the studio, who has recently been nominated for a Chip Shop Award as well as promote some healthy type experimentation. Armed with a copy of Font Book, a projector and space at the Islington Mill in Salford, Raw set to work experimenting and creating some interesting results.

Now a few months old, the whole project has taken on a life of it’s own into a dedicated Raw Type site with some of the projections available to buy as screened printed posters. To mimic their birthing ground, K2 have printed them on sexy-to-the-touch Plike using phosphorescent ink (yep glow-in the dark to you and me). Thanks to Rob for sending us up a copy of the poster as well.

We designed these free grid based home screen backgrounds and decided to call them Grid-Apps (Okay we know they are not Apps but the organise your Apps so were sticking with it, okay!) available for iPhone and iPad to coincide with the IOS4 software upgrade which allows you to select and image as a home screen background. These grid inspired layouts act as an organised wireframe grid structure to keep your applications in neat and tidy order on your iPhone or iPad. With numbered grid rows and a ‘D’ for Dock you simply press hold and drag and drop your icons into the specific grid spots. Please note only works on devices running IOS4 and only on 3GS or iPhone 4. More colours and styles will be available soon. Click here for free download and installation instructions. iPad Grid-Apps will be available soon.

We were invited to submit a design for 60+ Years Project setup by designer Zara Arshad. Here are some sneek peeks of our submission, literally based on the idea of freedom of speech we laid out a grid of open black on white speech marks on one side of a picket and a white on black closed marks on the reverse. There are 26 speech mark styles each taken from a font corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. You can find out more about the project and the contributors here.

We have been working on some nice updates to the website lately as part of a larger studio branding exercise which includes a new ‘selected work’ feature window, a new identities section and all new studio fonts, new foiled stationery on Colourplan, presentation templates, internal and external studio signage and a new quarterly studio promotional print piece which will be available soon (More on this soon). Keep an eye on the site for further updates soon. Thanks to Cargo for the updates.

Theres a few doing the rounds at the moment with the World Cup nearly upon us. This is a lovely typographic wall chart designed by David Watson of TrebleSeven and is all for a good cause with all proceeds raised going to Soccer Aid | UNICEF. The poster is available to buy directly from here – its only £7 + £3 P&P. Alternatively Magma all also selling it from their Clerkenwell / Covent Garden Shops. Go on, get one for the studio wall and do some good at the same time. See more images here.

Here is some preview images of some work we have just about completed for a new London based media agency called JOQ. We have completed a full new identity package including 4 sub brands and flexible secondary colour palette, print stationery materials and a new bespoke website which is currently in development. More news on this project launching soon.

The ‘Sorry Im Late’ Tees just arrived in the studio and are looking great, thanks again to Søren at Superfancy for all his help. Our favourite is the grey one but they are available now in White/Grey/Black and Navy. They are printed on American Apparel Standard Tees and have a nice slim fit. Get over there and find out more and before you ask, no you don’t get a discount.

Simpson’s is a well established as one of Aberdeen’s top hotels and finest restaurants. They recently approached us to design a new sales brochure pack which reflected the quality and style of the hotel as well as the variety of services and accommodation options they offer. See more of the project here.

We were delighted to be asked to guest design a T-shirt for Danish proprietor of designer loveliness Superfancy. Here is the finished design which is now available to order in a variety of colours and sizes here. Thank to Søren at Superfancy for the opportunity and were excited to see some finished Tee’s arrive at the studio.

Here is a second set of images taken whilst on a recent trip to Pisa, Florence and Lucca. This set consist mostly of the beautiful old Italian buildings, doorways and in particular lots of lovely bikes leaning against rustic italian walls like the ones above. We are thinking of compiling a photgraphic book using some of these shots, so watch this space. See the full set here.